Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Hunter Turned GathererIf a guy can't catch the cyprinus carpio ghosting the stream, he can at least scrounge the banks for other sources of energy.

Here, Vitis riparia subs for fish flesh, as the defeated angler concedes to the sages of the stream and proceeds to stain his fingers with the blood of the vine.There comes with the gathering of wild grapes though some risk: they can be tricksey and false... use a fellow from the neighborhood to lay a trap for would-be-consumers. Here, the guardian is Rhamnus cathartica. Discerning eye is required. Don't eat the diarhetic on the left.

Eating dirt, be it collected and concentrated by fish, or bottled sour by wild edibles, is an enjoyable, fulfilling and right thing. The grapes are in the freezer... some cool fall evening we'll turn them into jelly.

When a guy gets a new house, parents sometimes unload childhood from their storage to your newfound space. My brother's journal was inadvertently given to me... and has since been returned - but not before I captured this gem.

Hehe... prophesizing at age 10. Hope he doesn't mind me sharing that one. As an aside, the second entry (unlike the first in this respect) is not verifiable at this point.

Been three years...Somewhat overdue am I, with respect to posting some pics of our firstborn son on and around his birthday.

Coming downstairs for a birthday breakfast - kinda like Christmas. The image is blurry but it captures the exitement.His main present from us was a good tee ball set. He lit a few up in the house before we got the equipment outside. This may be more of a "parents trying to steer playing in a certain direction" gift, because the standard toys - trucks, books, etc. - are getting a lot more attention thus far.The other gift we gave him is a homemade fly rod - made special for the pond at the local nature center. It's the end half of my first ever spinning rod, with a section of heavy mono tied on the tip-top... then loop-to-loop connections from there to a 5 foot piece of the heavy section of a WF6F line and from there to a mini tapered leader - from 0x down to 2x. It turns over flies perfectly with little flip casts. The only problem is that the line is just a bit too long... easily remedied though. When asked what kind of fish he planned to catch with his new rod, he gave this simple reply: "carp."We had a bigger party after out little immediate family party... JD did not object to two events. This one was great too - we had ~8 kids over, all pretty young and really fun little chaps and gals. Little bro DMW was in attendance too - looking good if I do say so meself.Mom made a whippin good birthday mound out of cupcakes - very cool idea that was a big hit with all involved.Not sure if this is designed for kids' entertainment, or adult enjoyment... works in favor of both though. The kids just lit up this pinata. A couple of them have great baseball form already - just pounded the thing! This was a highlight of the party. Old Man Black Walnut served us well - held the rope in a drooping and leafy hand while the kids whacked and attacked. When the candy hit the grass, eyes lit up.Next day we took the new rod to its namesake water. JD caught a number of fish... but still <5% of those that actually ate the fly. I'd say "pick up the rod" and he'd look at me, then dip the rod tip in the water and trace figure-eights. Oh well. He did set the hook quite a few times, and he played and landed a few sunnies by himself. In one instance he actually flipped the fly out there, gave it some action, set the hook... played and landed fish, set fish on dock, set rod down, crouched down, picked up fish and began to work fly from fish's mouth.

Three Year Portraits: JDWHe presents us with something new and amazing pretty much every day. To have a guy like this in our lives is quite a blessing.